Whidbey Island
With all the smoke in the air, we dropped the idea of taking a tour of the San Juan Islands. I'd guess visibility is about 1/2 mile here. I doubt it would have been any better around the islands. We didn't want to sit around camp again, so we decided to drive around Whidbey Island. That was free, and Carol had found a brochure describing all the quaint little towns on the island. On a normal, clear day, we could see this could be a gorgeous drive. But today, it was like driving in the L. A. smog in the early 70's. The marketing writers of the brochure had quite a sense of imagination when it came to the "quaint little towns" that hadn't changed since their founding.
The Deception Pass Bridge connects Whidbey Island to the mainland. It's actually two bridges with Pass Island in the middle. The bridge is 17 stories above Puget Sound. It is one of the classic images of the Puget Sound area, but the smoke made it look like we were seeing it through a dirty window.
Carol made a new friend outside the tourist office in Coupeville, one of those quaint towns on Whidbey Island. We walked around the tourist area that consisted of two blocks of shops. Our best "find" was a bumper sticker that said, "Do you hear crazy voices? Turn off FOX NEWS." We had a good lunch in Coupeville at the Lower Loft Eatery. The service was good, but the food was a little slow coming out of the kitchen. Nothing came out of the kitchen "until it's time." The wait was worth it.
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We met an interesting artist at Greenbank Farm. She was the owner of one of the galleries and worked in several different types of media. I liked her whimsical watercolors. Each had a "feel good" background story behind it.
Our final stop was Penn Cove Pottery where seven artists displayed their pieces. We talked to one artist who had just been to a show and had sold all of her pieces. She was working in the back work room trying to rebuild her stock while we were looking around. Carol bought a coffee mug to replace the one that bit the dust just before we left home.
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